The Echo Bazaar
"The Bazaar is traditionally spoken of as if it's a single living thing. Women call it 'he'; men call it 'she'. The Masters of the Bazaar style themselves 'Mr', but no-one seems to think they're actually men." "The Bazaar is located at the heart of Fallen London, in the Neath, a cavern of impossible size, by the Unterzee, a tremendous saltwater lake. They say it's the skull of some defunct pagan god. That doesn't sound very likely. Although it would explain the dreams." The Echo Bazaar is the center of commerce in Fallen London. Let the Echoes Flow "Welcome to the Bazaar. We are looking forward to meeting your money. Echoes are the currency of the Bazaar. One hundred pennies are one Echo. Get Echoes by selling the treasures you acquire." Almost all legal commerce takes place beneath the auspices of the Bazaar's spires. People from almost all walks of life are free to buy and sell their wares here, including people straight out of New Newgate. The Bazaar sells and buys many things, from more common items like clothing or pets to the more intangible such as secrets and souls. Stories of love seem to be of particular interest. The Bazaar trades in pennies and echoes (100 pennies = 1 echo), and echoes are reflections of the Bazaar's first-ever currency. The Bazaar has seven doors, each of which is made of a different material: *'Copper', for those who should never be crossed. *'Ormolu', for the truest of romantics. *'Ivory', for the finest of thieves. *'Glass', for those who can see the subtlest of details. *'Paper', used for postal purposes. *'Steel', the door which leads to the Masters' apartments. "The Steel Door swings open to reveal a black-cushioned lift." *'Teeth', reserved for the greatest of Londoners. Bazaardoor_copper.png|The Copper Door Bazaardoor_ormolu.png|The Ormolu Door Bazaardoor_ivory.png|The Ivory Door Bazaardoor_glass.png|The Glass Door Bazaardoor_paper.png|The Paper Door bazaardoor_steel.png|The Steel Door Bazaardoor_teeth.png|The Door of Teeth The Bazaar deals in commerce on a far greater scale than these goods; for what it's worth, its vaults are far too extensive and secretive to contain only the mundane. "The actual coins are no more than thirty years old. But they represent something ancient. Fragments of a primal power, locked away in the Masters' vaults since the deal that bought the First City." The Bazaar also closely monitors the people it deems Notable, and it may bestow rewards and specialized roles to those who gain its attention. People of exceptional skill and fame may bargain for esoteric knowledge to push their training even further. It’s tempting to ask why all this is how it is, but good luck trying to find answers. There are powerful people who’d like to keep it secret. The Side-streets "What can you find in the Bazaar Sidestreets? Respectable firms crammed into ramshackle workshops and poky offices. The rent here is astronomical. But the quick and the hungry turn profits in the shadows of the spires. Just keep your eyes off the carvings up high. And whatever you do, don't fall in love." The Bazaar Side-streets are only accessible to those of some Importance, but these alleyways have many lucrative business opportunities for these well-known figures. They can be accessed using a document called a Sharper's Pass. Notable Businesses and Locations Main Shops These are main shops of the Bazaar, accessible to almost anyone. *'Carrow's Steel': "Self-defence for the discerning gentleperson." *'Maywell's Hattery':'' "Your crowning glory."'' *'Dark & Savage': "Grace your hands with the finest and most attentive gloves in London." *'Gottery the Outfitter': "We are always sufficient." *'Nassos Zoologicals': "Pets for all! Be brave." *'MERCURY': "Boots out of legend!" *'Nikolas Pawnbrokers': "Best wares. Best prices. No spiders." *'Merrigans Exchange':'' "Wholesale Agents to the Bazaar. Celebrating Twenty Years Without An Apostrophe."'' *'Redemptions':'' "A labour exchange. Of sorts."'' *'Dauncey's': "For Gentlemen." *'Fadgett & Daughters': "By Appointment to the Shuttered Palace." *'Crawcase Cryptics':'' "Secrets, Papers, Truths, Mistruths, Rumours, Lies, Prayers. Books."'' *'Penstock's Land Agency':'' "Exceptional Dwellings for Exceptional People!"'' *'Harbour Provisioners': Business restricted to'' the Iron Republic - long story. The Sidestreets These services are only available to those who have proven their Importance. *'Empire Adornments', a jewelry dealer. *'Blackfinger Street', where publishers and writers do business. *'The Horse-Steak Club', a tavern of some note. *'Baseborn and Fowlingpiece', the Neath's best provider of legal documents and permits. *'The Great Downward Engineering Company', hawking interesting contraptions and cheap labor. *'The Bridge Without', another tavern of some note. The Courier ''"In the deepest matters of the Bazaar, always look to love. Always." Before it came to the Neath, the Bazaar, also known as the Courier, was a messenger of the stars.The Seventh Letter Its true form is that of a giant space-crab, covered in seven spires inscribed with the maddening Correspondence. It's still very much alive, and it underwent a sort of lobotomy to remove its urges to deliver messages, done by the Cladery Heir's mother. Nowadays, it stays in London, often getting high on the sphinxstones from the the Salt Lions, a drug that induces nostalgia for better days. The Bazaar's Backstory A long, long time ago, in a galaxy that's most likely our own, the Bazaar and the Sun got together and had some really weird rock offspring (including Stone). The Sun then fell in love with a different star, and to add insult to injury, sent the Bazaar (who's the Sun's messenger by the way) to give the other star a love letter. This other star, unfortunately, rejected the Sun in her reply. The Bazaar begged for extra time to deliver the rejection notice. So it has seven cities' time - ordered by the space dragons (like Storm) - to find seven cities' worth of love stories to boil down into the Ultimate Love and prevent the Sun from drowning in its own tears. We used to think that the Bazaar was collecting love stories to prove to the Judgements that love between links of the Great Chain (the Sun is above her on this Chain) is permissible, but upon careful inspection of a certain forbidden play, this is a misconception. Before coming to the Neath, the Bazaar made a deal with a dozen or so Curators. These Curators were unwelcome amongst their kind, so they joined the Bazaar to escape poverty.https://www.failbettergames.com/a-secret-about-the-masters/ The Bazaar gave them a simple promise: "All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.". By the time of the Fifth City, these Curators took on the name of the Masters of the Bazaar, and a few of them, like Mr Iron, have grown suspicious of the Bazaar's authenticity. The Taste of Lacre "A tiny flask of utter sorrow. The touch of the corked flask provokes weeping. Consume it, and be fatally consumed by melancholy." "Neath-snow - or is it 'lacre'?" Every Christmas the Bazaar floods London with its unique form of snow, called lacre. This odd substance has the air of ammonia about it, but there might be more to it than meets the eye. Lacre is not safe to consume (we are very serious about this), and it can transform life forms into miniature copies of the Bazaar - spired crustaceans, basically. Lacre also acts as a form of liquid memory, and sampling its aroma can give an imbiber mysterious visions. Inspecting lacre under a powerful enough magnifying glass will reveal flakes reminiscent of the Correspondence, as opposed to the hexagonal flakes of the Surface. Feeding lacre to pigs will cause them to fall asleep, which is more important than you'd think. A most enigmatic substance indeed! Quality lacre can be hard to come by, but the Urchins are known for peddling it, and lacre is a crucial ingredient in the creation of a Noman. The Bazaar's tears are a distilled form of lacre, and they are liquid sadness: touching the cork of the bottle will induce weeping, and if drunk, the liquid will consume the drinker with melancholy. Under the Bazaar lies the Sundered Sea, which serves as its lacre-vats. The Sea can be accessed by crossing Penstock's Wicket, via an elevator of sorts. Penstock himself is a peculiar individual; according to Maybe's Daughter, he has "understanding" with the Bazaar, and he once let the Lady in Lilac pass through to make her own bargains. The Stone Pigs "I found myself dreaming of the Stone Pigs. They're, oh, I don't entirely understand, still. But they're how the Bazaar travels between stars. (Did you know they did that?) And they sleep." The Bazaar's thrusters, which it once used to travel through space, are conjecturally known as the Stone Pigs. The Pigs are responsible for the creation of the Cumaean Canal, and they also churn and grind the Fallen Cities into nothing whenever a new one is about to fall. "Some people call them Stone Pigs. When the Fifth City fell, they awoke. That's why the Fourth City doesn't exist anymore. They churned it into the ground." Lacre is used to keep them sedated, as the Pigs will awaken without it. The Stone Pigs are some of the most bizarre and eldritch creatures in the Neath, and describing them is quite taxing. The Pigs are vast and hairy, but they are not pigs. "The hairy stone wall goes for a hundred yards in each direction. The edges are fast against the stone ... the hairy stone is pierced and crumbling. Is this a Stone Pig? If it is, what happens here?" They do however, consume fungi like pigs (pigs love truffles after all). "If something looks like a mushroom, call it a mushroom. If something wants to eat mushrooms, call it a pig." The Pigs will never drown in lacre, only slumber in it, and they obey no master when they are hungry (if they are starved, they will seek out food on their own). "... their hungers must be satisfied again, or they will break away to feed themselves. They will obey no master without food." If a creature is fed what the Stone Pigs eat, it may become one itself (Neathy taxonomy is weird). "Her pupils are wider than pies, and her whites milky-blue. She isn't stone. Perhaps she's not a pig either. Taxonomy, in the Neath, slips like a snake in your hands: even if you get a grip, you might get bitten too." The Stone Pigs do not have hearts of their own. Their shared heart was once a fungus that was once greater than a city. But this has been butchered and consumed over the course of eons, "The Stone Pigs do not have a heart. The heart they do not have is here. It speaks to you. It is a fungus too. Once greater than a city, now butchered and shrunken and small. Only a quivering lump smeared on the altar and skewered." and it is more like a fuel core than a fungus. The Heart is a living thing, and the current Heart is bloated with the memories of the five Fallen Cities. "What was lost still echoes here. Thoughts that rumble and congeal. Material for me to weave ... Cataclysms when five cities fell ... when they were crushed ... here underground. My memories. They are mine now. Soaked into my mycelium." The Heart is dead, but it will live on through its poetry. "They will not die. A memory, their poetry, survives." The Tireless Mechanic managed to cheat a secret of the Stone Pigs from the Fingerkings, and he stored it within Frostfound. Using black ivory, copper, acid, blood, a spark that will burn, sapphires, and a heart (destiny's engine), he created the Fulgent Impeller, an extremely powerful engine that runs as hot as the forces that drive the Bazaar. References :Special thanks to Midnight Voyager for research and citations. Category:The High Wilderness Category:Places Category:London Category:Fate Spoilers Category:Cited Category:Formatted